How To: Make a Compost Bucket

As you may of noticed, I’m a big fan of super simple projects – the simpler, the better. It’s been a while since I composted and I’ve really been wanting to start again. It’s amazing how many food scraps one creates throughout the week! This project only took about 10-15 min, and this was with little Elise helping!

If you want to learn more about composting or other types of compost contraptions, I highly recommend reading the book “Urban Homestead“, or the Commonsense Homestead. There are a ton of resources out there!

The Steps:
1. Find a large bucket or container. We used a storage container. It should be something you can drill in to. Make sure it has a lid because you’re going to need to close it so critters don’t get into it.
2. Drill holes all through out the bottom of the container. I drilled five larger holes and many, many small holes. I keep the container outside directly on the grass in the back of the house. This is so there is still a little air flow and so that beneficial buggies (specifically, worms) can help break down the scraps.
3. And that’s it! Now it’s time to put in your compost. First, your carbon. We used torn-up paper bags from Trader Joes. The bags say they are compostable – so they’re perfect!
5. Then put in your food scraps. We compost pretty much everything except meat and dairy. That stuff requires a more sophisticated composting system, so we steer clear. And then mix! Make sure you’ve put your lid on tightly. You don’t want a nice yucky mess popping out – that’s one way to discourage you from doing it again! We just turn the container over and over a handful of times to mix everything up.

Ta da! You’ve got yourself a simple composting system. Composting takes quite a bit of time to be ready to use in your garden – so have patience!

I hope this encourages anyone who’s been toying around with the idea. I know this hasn’t been the prettiest post – but it’s at least been practical!